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Ireland’s First Michelin-Starred Kaiseki Restaurant

Ichigo Ichie, which translates as “once in a lifetime”, opened in Cork, Ireland in April 2018. 43-year-old chef Takashi Miyazaki, originally from Fukuoka, brings Japanese multi-course fine dining for the first time to Ireland, in a style that he refers to as “Irish kaiseki.”

Miyazaki “dips into the traditions of Japanese cooking but adds his own interpretation”, said the Michelin guide at the announcement of the chef’s first star in October this year.

The 12 course “no option” menu at Ichigo Ichie features local, seasonal Irish ingredients that come together in typical Japanese kaiseki courses, seen in dishes such as creamy tofu with rhubarb poached in dashi, or the kamo nanban soba made of Thornhill duck, buckwheat, negi, hay leek and soba.

The Michelin star came somewhat as a surprise to the chef, who claimed it wasn’t something he was aiming for, especially in less than six months since the opening: “It was a very new restaurant and all I was fixated on was keeping a high standard.” But chef Miyazaki is no newcomer to the industry, whose kitchen tales cover more than two decades and has seen him travel all over Japan, finally landing in Cork City in 2008. His first sole venture on the Emerald Isle was the eponymous Japanese takeaway restaurant Miyazaki in 2015 where he sold popular Japanese staples such as bento, udon, rice bowls and curry dishes.